KOL Mezcaleria
The cocktail list is built two drinks to an ingredient pair, sorrel and hop, or rhubarb and pear, and one of the two is always agave, so you can taste what the mezcal is doing by drinking the same idea without it.
Why go
The room upstairs holds a Michelin star and takes bookings two months out. This one is down the spiral staircase, it takes walk-ins, and it is where the agave lives. Maxim Schulte built the opening list after running the American Bar at the Savoy, and Matthias Ingelmann has the programme now (DesignMyNight). The buying is the real signal: the bar went to small Mexican producers deliberately, to cover a wide spread of flavor profiles rather than a wide spread of labels, and glasses start at twelve pounds while the top of the shelf runs to four figures (Hot Dinners). They also bottle their own mezcal, which is the thing a spirits bar does when it has stopped being a customer and started being a partner. The snacks come off the kitchen upstairs.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the agave half of whichever ingredient pair is running, then the other half, and taste the difference. The tequila Martini with pine and cucumber, which the one bylined bar review rated above everything else on the list. A glass of one of their own mezcals. Off the antojitos, the langoustine ceviche and the Kentish Oaxaca cheese quesadilla with truffle.
- Avoid: ordering agave by brand. Hand the list over and let them take you through it, because that is what the room is built for. Treating this as a way into the restaurant, since it is a separate menu in a separate room.
What locals & experts say
- Gavin Hanly for Hot Dinners, on the drinks:
Out of all the drinks, the Martini gets the top marks, but generally speaking, these are at the high end of London's bars from a quality standpoint. All well worth a look.
The same piece discloses that Hot Dinners were guests of the bar, which is worth knowing when you read the verdict.1 - London On The Inside, on the room and the list:
It's a sexy basement place and really feels like you're in Mexico City and not Marylebone,
with drinksfrom Maxim Schulte's (former Head Bartender at The American Bar at The Savoy) cocktail list, like the Sloe & Grape Mezcal Negroni and the Sea Buckthorn & Corn French 75.
3 - Kiera Chapman for DesignMyNight, on the back bar:
an impressive selection of small-scale producers and independent distillers from Yucatan to Jalisco.
Her piece is a bookings platform's bylined editorial, so it is carried here for the facts.2 - No drinks award was found. World's 50 Best Bars, the UK Top 50 Cocktail Bars and the Spirited Awards were all searched on 1 August 2026 and none carries this bar. The Pinnacle Guide holds a page for it that neither fetch lane could open. The rung rests on the buying and on one bylined bar review.
Good to know
- Where: the lower ground floor at 9 Seymour Street, down the spiral staircase from KOL, sharing the basement with the chef's table.
- Booking: walk-ins are welcome and it is far easier to get into than the restaurant, which is the practical reason to know about it.
- Rooms: this is its own row here, with its own verdict. The restaurant's star, its two World's 50 Best placings and its critics all belong upstairs.
- Hygiene: FSA rating 5, inspected 20 March 2026, components all clean. There is one FSA registration for the whole building, so this is the same record the restaurant carries.6
- Price: glasses of agave from twelve pounds at the last published account, with the top of the shelf into four figures a bottle.
Verdict
should-visit — This is the St. JOHN Bar shape and it is why it is worth knowing. Upstairs, you book the starred tasting menu two months ahead. Down the spiral staircase is a room that takes walk-ins, pours the same kitchen's snacks, and treats agave as a subject rather than a shelf. The list is built in ingredient pairs, sorrel and hop, rhubarb and pear, and each pair gives you the same idea twice, once on mezcal or tequila and once on something else, which is a bar showing its working. They buy from small producers to spread the flavor profiles deliberately, and they bottle their own mezcal, which is the strongest craft signal a spirits bar can carry. Gavin Hanly put the drinks 'at the high end of London's bars from a quality standpoint' and gave the tequila Martini top marks. It stops short of must-visit because no drinks award of any body or year could be found and the two reviews carrying it are a hosted visit and a bookings platform's editorial.